


Unnamed Soldier

by DraconicWolf



Category: RWBY
Genre: Non-Graphic Violence, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:28:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22069294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DraconicWolf/pseuds/DraconicWolf
Summary: Atlas Public ArchivesItem NC0789 55630Title: Personal Recount #3762, part of the Hidden Casualties of War collectionAuthor: Unknown, Unnamed SoldierType: Personal Journal EntryDate: Unknown, War of RemnantLocation: Vale, UnknownNotes: From the personal effects of an unknown self-proclaimed war veteran. Donated by a student who spent a term working one of the Faunus shelters located in Mantle. Legitimacy unknown. Untranslated, transcripted with minor grammar adjustments and filtering of foul language.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	Unnamed Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> Little plot bunny that is heavily outside of canon in that we know surprisingly little about "the War" and a certain Semblance hasn't been revealed in the show yet.

They wouldn’t believe me in the formal report, that I didn’t know what happened. Kept asking for a reason for my being alive and well. Asking of what I’d seen until eventually the Sergeant wrote it up himself and sent it in. Been told to shut my mouth by the few Faunus and human managers I eventually told, recently while high or drunk. Shut up and keep my head down, don’t cause trouble now. But the war’s over going on thirty years and I feel I need to get this out of me for good. Writing it down seems as right away as any. Won’t be affording a Scroll anytime soon. Wouldn’t have nobody to send it to.

Forget now which battle it was. Somewhere in the middle, when it was the bloodiest and no one with power was caring. Most of it was slaughter and orders getting crossed between lines. A right show. Usually, the carnage was messy, one side with clearly more power than the other. A few times, there was a clear line and we were all picking each other off evenly, but this wasn’t one of those. We all should’ve died that day except for this brave man that comes to save us.

He came with his superior, but I don’t remember anything about him but his voice. This man though, he was a tall fellow. Strong, dark, good looking, with the piercing blue eyes that makes anyone with a pulse pause. Had it been legal then as it was now I’d have taken a shot at bedding him. And had we not been in a war zone. This man, he had the strut of born leadership and power, sent to us because no one was closer that they’d trust not to accept bribes. He was bringing orders to be killed a few rivers over because that was supposed to send the powerups a different message or something. But the ground enemies had other plans and we were pinned. I was all set to die; said my prayers for my mother, thanked them my shirt was red and my pants were brown, and mourned the thought of dying next to such a fine fellow without knowing him. I heard our superior swear under his breath and turned to this man with him and barked an order. They argued while we were hollering and dying. Finally the hero took a stance that looked kind of funky. And Brothers be my witness the bullets stopped coming towards us. They just seemed to disappear in the air. 

Well, we all thought, now ain’t that just something. We glanced and grinned and began spraying the other guys. It took only a minute and the fine man screeching for us to realize our bullets were also disappearing. Which just took the fun out of the whole thing. We stood there with our weapons drawn at a bit of a loss. The supposed leader of the enemy group cocked his head and tilted his ears. We could all hear the low noise of a com. The wolf/dog/fox/mutt Faunus cackled and started spraying the air, shouting at his pals to do the same, saying the shield had to come down at some point.

Poor bugger holding the shield took to his knee almost immediately from the onslaught. Some of us started turning around to run for cover while others propped up their guns and got ready to start shooting. Someone yelled for a cue that the shield was gonna fall. Sweat was pouring down the man’s face and his Aura had started to flicker. He was speaking harshly to his superior. Couldn’t hear it over the roar and shower of ammo and dust. He was looking real frantic though. When we were finally through shifting around he was told to drop it, but refused, shaking his head like a wet dog and jerking towards all of us. We were starting to get frustrated and some even stood up from behind cover to yell at the man. That’s the moment it fell.

None of us knew it wasn’t a shield, wasn’t making anything actually disappear. It was a net. Suspending all those bullets in a temporary way. Has a nifty trick of sending stuff back from where it came too. Thousands of bullets, all at once, slaughtered almost two hundred enemy troops in a second. Left them looking like Swiss cheese, had the dust not gone back too and made a crater in the ground. Of course that meant our ammo was returned as well.

By grace or cruelty of someone, I lived. But of the thirty Faunus and two men beside me, only six remained. Three died of wounds on the way back to camp and one committed suicide from seeing his brother, well. Rams are tough to kill. But no one should survive more than three rounds to the gut.

That man, that hero. He was following orders same as me. Said he’d had a sister whose children they were using as leverage. Someone sending him through the battles to trim the numbers of Faunus in the world, disguising it as war killings. Don’t know if that was true. Didn’t matter at the time. Thinking about it not being true was too hard. Couldn’t even look at him while in that awful forest. Now, I see him atoning for those deaths he’s caused. Changing protocols and laws for the military. Setting up one of those fancy schools for people like him, with big Auras. Making a point of doing right by the Faunus. Don’t know what good it would be to point a finger at him.

Does make me feel better to have this down, though. Don’t think I’ll feel the urge to talk to anybody about it again.

**Author's Note:**

> All rights, of course, belong to Rooster Teeth.  
> In my own mind, this is about the character James Ironwood, but changing one or two details could make this a story about many different characters in different fandoms.


End file.
